Perfection

I do not know how most of you grew up, what you were taught, how you believe, or even how you actually feel about yourself and others. However, I do know sometimes we feel like we can never reach the goal, and the target is forever unreachable. What are we striving for? Are we wanting perfection? Are things never good enough? Are you never satisfied? Not too long ago I come to a very abrupt conclusion that I was attempting perfection in everything I did but there is a reality in this. The reality is that none of us can ever reach perfection, there was only one human to walk this earth perfect, with no flaws, with no sins, and that was our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the son of God. It is preposterous to attempt perfection. Why? Because it is not attainable. Living by legalism, religion, and fear is not a very happy sane way to live. Mentally attempting this pursuit of perfection is at times very painful. We are fallable humans in need of Gods great grace. Noone could ever follow the law, this is why Jesus came to die for us on Calvary for our sins to reconcile us back to God the Father. He was the perfect lamb of God, without spot, blemish, or wrinkle. We can never reach perfection. We are sin filled flesh and we fail each and every day. Yes, we do strive to overcome this sinful nature. The more time we invest in the pursuit of knowing and growing in Jesus, we grow more like Him. We do walk and talk more like Him, the one we follow. To strive for the goal of perfection will forever end in failure. However to strive to be the best you , that you can be is more of something we can handle and pursue. Spending time with God each day and making a special time just for you in the quiet place with the Lord Jesus is vital for your stability. When we meet Him there, He causes us to grow, and His word is reading you as you read His word. The word of God is powerful. It is full of amazing stories of people who are similiar to us, average persons doing amazing things for God. Just as you and I are full of falacies ,they were as well, and they went on to do great things for the Lord. That excites me because God uses the common misfits and rejects of society to bring glory honor and praise to Himself, through His marvelous works through us, His children, He accomplishes His great will.

Ephesians 2:8-10 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.-For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The problem is while we are saved by faith alone in Christ,that faith will result in obedience and good works. I’ve met many people who use the nobody’s perfect excuse to rebel against God. What kind of salvation is that? You sin, repent, then you purposely sin the next day. This might be you. I know many people who say they are Christian and I say why do you call him Lord and do not do what he says or how can you keep on living a lifestyle of sin? I want to tell you something if you are truly saved you are a new creature. It’s not what you are trying to be it’s what you are. We all have fallen short and sometimes the Christian life is a few steps forward and a few steps back and vice versa, but there will be growth. Just like babies grow older and wiser we are to grow in Christ and grow in God’s Word. Put on the full armor of God, find the root problem to all your sins, and make an effort to overcome them instead of living in them. Stop using your own strength, but use the Lord’s strength because through Him you can do anything.

1 John 1:8-10 If we go around bragging, “We have no sin,” then we are fooling ourselves and are strangers to the truth. But if we own up to our sins, God shows that He is faithful and just by forgiving us of our sins and purifying us from the pollution of all the bad things we have done. If we say, “We have not sinned,” then we depict God as a liar and show that we have not let His word find its way into our hearts.

Romans 3:22-25 This redeeming justice comes through the faithfulness of Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King, who makes salvation a reality for all who believe—without the slightest partiality. You see, all have sinned, and all their futile attempts to reach God in His glory fail. Yet they are now saved and set right by His free gift of grace through the redemption available only in Jesus the Anointed. When God set Him up to be the sacrifice—the seat of mercy where sins are atoned through faith—His blood became the demonstration of God’s own restorative justice. All of this confirms His faithfulness to the promise, for over the course of human history God patiently held back as He dealt with the sins being committed.

Isaiah 64:6 All of us are dirty with sin. All the right things we have done are like filthy pieces of cloth. All of us are like dead leaves, and our sins, like the wind, have carried us away.

Ecclesiastes 7:20 There is not a righteous person on earth who always does good and never sins.

Psalm 130:3-5 Lord, if you punished people for all their sins, no one would be left, Lord. But you forgive us, so you are respected. I wait for the Lord to help me, and I trust his word.

It’s true we will sin and make mistakes, but we must never use this excuse to rebel against God’s Word.

John 14:23-24 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

Jeremiah 18:11-12 “So, say this to the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem: ‘This is what the Lord says: I am preparing disaster for you and making plans against you. So stop doing evil. Change your ways and do what is right.’ But the people of Judah will answer, ‘It won’t do any good to try! We will continue to do what we want. Each of us will do what his stubborn, evil heart wants!’

2 Timothy 2:19 But God’s strong foundation continues to stand. These words are written on the seal: “The Lord knows those who belong to him,”and “Everyone who wants to belong to the Lord must stop doing wrong.”

We must be imitators of Christ, not the world.

Matthew 5:48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

1 Corinthians 11:1-34 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Proverbs 11:20-21 The Lord detests those whose hearts are perverse, but he delights in those whose ways are blameless. Be sure of this: The wicked will not go unpunished, but those who are righteous will go free.

Romans 6:1-6 So do you think we should continue sinning so that God will give us even more grace? No! We died to our old sinful lives, so how can we continue living with sin? Did you forget that all of us became part of Christ when we were baptized? We shared his death in our baptism. When we were baptized, we were buried with Christ and shared his death. So, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the wonderful power of the Father, we also can live a new life. Christ died, and we have been joined with him by dying too. So we will also be joined with him by rising from the dead as he did. We know that our old life died with Christ on the cross so that our sinful selves would have no power over us and we would not be slaves to sin.

Romans 6:14-17 Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law but under God’s grace. So what should we do? Should we sin because we are under grace and not under law? No! Surely you know that when you give yourselves like slaves to obey someone, then you are really slaves of that person. The person you obey is your master. You can follow sin, which brings spiritual death, or you can obey God, which makes you right with him. In the past you were slaves to sin—sin controlled you. But thank God, you fully obeyed the things that you were taught. Proverbs 14:11-12 The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish. There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. 2 Corinthians 5:16-18 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

So....Ephesians 6:11-14 Put on the full armor of God to protect yourselves from the devil and his evil schemes. We’re not waging war against enemies of flesh and blood alone. No, this fight is against tyrants, against authorities, against supernatural powers and demon princes that slither in the darkness of this world, and against wicked spiritual armies that lurk about in heavenly places. And this is why you need to be head-to-toe in the full armor of God: so you can resist during these evil days and be fully prepared to hold your ground. Yes, stand—truth banded around your waist, righteousness as your chest plate.Galatians 5:16-21 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will never fulfill the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh wants is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, and so you do not do what you want to do. But if you are being led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the actions of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, rivalry, jealously, outbursts of anger, quarrels, conflicts, factions, envy, murder, drunkenness, wild partying, and things like that. I am telling you now, as I have told you in the past, that people who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.Galatians 5:25-26 Now since we have chosen to walk with the Spirit, let’s keep each step in perfect sync with God’s Spirit. This will happen when we set aside our self-interests and work together to create true community instead of a culture consumed by provocation, pride, and envy. James 4:7-8 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

When using this excuse goes wrong.

Proverbs 28:9 If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

1 John 2:3-6 This is how we can be sure that we have come to know him: if we continually keep his commandments. The person who says, “I have come to know him,” but does not continually keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth has no place in that person. But whoever continually keeps his commandments is the kind of person in whom God’s love has truly been perfected. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God: The one who says that he abides in him must live the same way he himself lived.

1 John 3:8-10 The person who practices sin belongs to the evil one, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason that the Son of God was revealed was to destroy what the Devil has been doing. No one who has been born from God practices sin, because God’s seed abides in him. Indeed, he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born from God. This is how God’s children and the Devil’s children are distinguished. No person who fails to practice righteousness and to love his brother is from God.

Luke 13:24-27 “Keep on struggling to enter through the narrow door, because I tell you that many people will try to enter, but won’t be able to do so. After the homeowner gets up and closes the door, you can stand outside, knock on the door, and say again and again, ‘Lord, open the door for us!’ But he will answer you, ‘I don’t know where you come from.’ Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will tell you, ‘I don’t know where you come from. Get away from me, all you who practice evil!’

Matthew 7:21-24 “Not everyone who keeps saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will get into the kingdom from heaven, but only the person who keeps doing the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name, drove out demons in your name, and performed many miracles in your name, didn’t we?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you workers of iniquity! “Therefore, everyone who listens to these messages of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock.

Learn from your mistakes, and never take advantage of the grace of God. If you’re a Christian and you happen to sin then, repent. It is good to repent daily, but do not be the fake Christian who deliberately keeps on having premarital sex, keeps watching porn, always steals, always lies, always wants to drink, smoke weed, and party. God’s Word means nothing to these type of people and they say to others God knows my heart and Jesus died for me who cares if I sin.

1 John 2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father–Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

Philippians 4:13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.